This invention relates to racquets.
A typical racquet comprises an approximately oval frame, usually of wood or extruded aluminum, having a plurality of holes extending substantially radially therethrough, the stringing of the racquet being directly secured to the frame by passing individual strings thereof through the holes. Typically, a given string is passed outwardly through a respective hole in the frame and then inwardly through an adjacent hole.
However, such a racquet suffers from a number of disadvantages. For example, parts of the stringing are at least partly exposed at the radially outer surface of the frame (i.e., between adjacent holes in the frame), and are thus subject to damage as a result of impacts, e.g., with the ground. Also the strings tend to fret against the frame, especially where they pass over the edges of the radially outer ends of the holes in the frame, this fretting eventually leading to breakage of the strings. Additionally, manufacturing costs are increased by the necessity for drilling and deburring the holes, and providing the fitting grommets in the holes, all of which operations can be labour intensive. Most significantly, the holes in the frame tend to set up stress concentrations, so that when the frame is severely stressed, it almost invariably breaks in the region of a hole.
It has already been proposed in my United Kingdom Patent Publication Nos. 2,094,643 and 2,136,300 to alleviate the above-mentioned disadvantages by providing a racquet in which the frame has a groove extending around the greater part of its internal periphery. The stringing of this racquet is secured to the frame by means of a one-piece sinuous string-securing member made from a suitably bent length of wire, which is held in the groove in various ways.
These proposals, although they do indeed alleviate the aforementioned disadvantages and provide excellent racquets, are aimed primarily at the more expensive, high quality, end of the racquet market. There remains a need for a racquet which is less expensive to manufacture, but which nevertheless retains at least some of the advantages of the racquets of my prior proposals.